Former Yorkshire CCC president, Viscount Mountgarret, who guided the club through some of its stormiest years, has died suddenly at the age of 67.

Viscount Mountgarret, of Stainley House, near Ripon, was found slumped in his car on Saturday evening on the A61 between Brearton and Ripley roundabout. He was taken to Harrogate District Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Yorkshire were in turmoil in the winter of 1984 when the club's members gave a vote of no confidence in the general committee over its sacking of Geoff Boycott and demanded his re-instatement.

The committee was forced to resign en-bloc and when fresh elections were called in March establishment figures were largely swept aside and 'rebels' voted in - including Boycott himself.

There was embarrassment for Yorkshire when they could not find a suitable replacement as president for ex-Yorkshire and England captain, Norman Yardley, who had resigned.

Lord Hanson rejected an approach to become president and it was into October before Yorkshire decided to ask Richard Henry Piers Butler, the 17th Viscount Mountgarret, if he would take on the job - an invitation he readily accepted.

If the club thought they had got a figurehead president who was happy solely to open the cocktail cabinet and pour the drinks they were very much mistaken.

Mountgarret proved an instant hit, memorably banging his bat down on a table and quoting Churchill as he appealed to various factions to bury the hatchet.

"If this can be done this club will move forward into broad sunlit uplands but if it should fail it will sink into the abyss of a new dark age, never to recover," he said.

Mountgarret did, indeed, bring stability to the club, and although he had his eccentricities he was always fair and unbiased, putting the members first.

He maintained his popularity with the members but in 1989 he was unexpectedly ousted by the committee when a vote against his re-nomination was taken while he was out of the room.

However, he never lost his interest in cricket, being a regular attender at Headingley right up to the end of last season.

Paying tribute to Mountgarret, Yorkshire's director of operations, Geoff Cope, said: "Viscount Mountgarret was a person who enjoyed his cricket.

"Those who knew him were very much aware of his fondness of cricket in general and his love of Yorkshire County Cricket Club in particular."

Yorkshire's current president, Robin Smith, said: "His influence was a positive one which resulted in a period of relative calm with the club slowly but surely improving its fortunes.

"He was extremely popular with the club's members who will be deeply saddened by his passing."

Updated: 10:51 Monday, February 09, 2004